Donald Trump questions NFL's statement on protests in tweet aimed at Roger Goodell

Tom Gatto

Donald Trump questions NFL's statement on protests in tweet aimed at Roger Goodell image

President Donald Trump had a question for NFL commissioner Roger Goodell on Sunday night.

Trump tweeted a query about whether Goodell would allow players to kneel before the national anthem this season after years of league resistance and public pressure by Trump to keep players standing.

Goodell posted a video Friday evening saying the league now admits "we were wrong for not listening to NFL players earlier and encourage all to speak out and peacefully protest." The NFL has been under scrutiny for how it has handled player protests since 2016, when Colin Kaepernick first took a knee during the anthem to protest police brutality and racial inequality.

Kaepernick has not played in the league since the end of the 2016 season. Team owners briefly made kneeling a fineable offense in 2018.

MORE: Kaepernick kneeling timeline

The Washington Post reported Saturday that Goodell did not consult with team owners before cutting the video, which he made after a group of prominent black players produced their own video Thursday calling for the league to make a stronger statement than the one it issued May 30 in response to nationwide protests and rioting following the May 25 death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

Trump is returning to an issue that gained him voter support during his successful election bid in 2016 and perhaps again in his reelection bid this year. He tweeted Friday that Saints quarterback Drew Brees should not have backed off saying that he could never agree with "anybody disrespecting the flag of the United States of America or our country."

Brees backtracked after receiving heavy criticism from teammates and eventually apologized multiple times for the comment. He also posted an Instagram message to Trump later Friday saying he now realizes that the protests have "never been" about the flag.

Redskins running back Adrian Peterson, meanwhile, told the Houston Chronicle on Friday that he would kneel for the anthem this season and indicated other players would, as well.

Taking a knee returned to the spotlight after Floyd's death at the knee of a former Minneapolis police officer, Derek Chauvin. Floyd died after Chauvin held his knee on Floyd's neck for more than eight minutes. Three other officers on the scene helped to keep Floyd down or stood idle. The incident was caught on camera.

Chauvin was arrested and charged with second-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. The three other officers were also arrested; they were charged with aiding and abetting murder.

Violent protests followed Floyd's death, but days into the demonstrations, some law enforcement personnel began taking a knee in solidarity with peaceful protesters.

Tom Gatto

Tom Gatto Photo

Tom Gatto joined The Sporting News as a senior editor in 2000 after 12 years at The Herald-News in Passaic, N.J., where he served in a variety of roles including sports editor, and a brief spell at APBNews.com in New York, where he worked as a syndication editor. He is a 1986 graduate of the University of South Carolina.